Annette Fisher, owner, said that they wanted to give the stand a calmer, fresher look. They came up with a totally new stand layout featuring a theme that reflects their location at both Central Market York and New Eastern Market.

On hand were members of the York County Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Inc, and representatives from Mayor Kim Bracey's office. And as with every celebration in York County, there had to be something tasty to munch on.

Attendees also got to taste and vote on three new sauces, one of which will be officially available on the Bair's menu. Annette says that she is also using the new YorKitchen to offer items that she couldn't make before, like baked mac n' cheese and brownies. Annette also credited the team at Inside Out Creative for designing the new menu, logo, and social media plan. 

Congrats to Bair's on keeping their branding fresh- a good lesson to all local businesses!

The theme of the day was supposed to be all the colors that come with fall- deep oranges and yellows, sultry reds, and sturdy brown tones. But not yesterday- the snow spread a blanket of white over all of that, and over most of the wedding plans, as well.

The ceremony was supposed to be a on a bridge by a meadow, but instead it was inside. They were supposed to have a fairly large guest list, but some people couldn't make it. The best man even got stuck in a ditch on the way and got there at the very last second.

Now most brides and grooms would have been upset by this, so we were fully expecting to find an unhappy couple. But instead, we found two of the most resilient, grateful people we had come across in a while. 

They didn't cry, or whine, or snap at anyone like your average bridezilla and groomzilla, they just shrugged their shoulders, strapped on appropriate footwear, and embraced the day for what it was.

What ended up happening was somewhat of a lesson to the rest of us- life goes on and if you let something get you down, it will. Their enthusiasm was contagious- even to us old jaded wedding photographers! 

And so, the show went on, we got some great shots, the ceremony went off without a hitch in the cozy old building, and the reception was great. Tasty catering by Accomac Events helped too, of course. 

It became pretty apparent why Kate and Terry ended up together- they could get through anything and even have fun doing it!

Congrats you two, and thanks for a memorable wedding!

3:45pm There was a quick afternoon break for a whole lot of networking with a side of coffee.

Then, last but not least, the "Social Media's Place in Your Marketing" panel stepped up to the stage. 

Meet:

Hal Good, Government Procurement Director, Frederick County (@hal_good)

Stephanie Gehman, Marketing Manager Marketing and CS, HIA (@airport_girl)

Sara Bozich, Writer/Blogger, Columnist for The Patriot News (@sarabozich)

Joanna Philips, Marketing/Social Media Manager, Phillips Seafood (@phillipsseafood)

 2:30pm The afternoon's keynote speaker is Mark W. Schaefer, President of Schaefer Marketing Solutions and industy leading expert. He's damn funny AND smart, too. 

1:35pm After a quick lunch, it's back to SM at Work! This afternoon's first panel is "Analytics, Measurement and Monitoring Proving Social Media's Business Value."

Ryan Sauers, President/CMO Sauers Consulting

Susan Ewing, Digital Director, HHRVB

Shannon Zimmerman, Senior Public Relations, Auntie Anne's

Wyatt McGuire, of Idea Tree briefing the crowd on Correctnicity.

12:00pm: The Pubic Reations and Social Response panel tackles the issue of how audiences react and change.

 Deb Weinstein, owner of Strategic Objectives (@DebWeinstein), shares her hard earned knowledge.

This panel, facilitated by Roy Wells of Triad Strategies (@royjwells), includes Ms. Weinstein, Megan Healey, Anchor at WHTM Channel 27(@meganhealey), and Ed Martin, Director of Marketing Excellence and CSR Insights of The Hershey Company.  

11:16am:

@alanbr82, @appmobi and @kjsmith87 on the Mobile Web panel.

11:07am: The second panel of the day is getting underway. "Mobile Marketing and Apps" features Sam Abadir, co founder of appMobi, Kevin Smith, communications director for PA Breast Cancer Coalition and Alan Brocious, owner of New Age Lead Generation.

10:30am: "From the C-Level" is finishing up- this portion welcomed 4 business leaders from around the community.

A few tweets from the past hour:

@LaceyWash: WISE words! What we tweet & post & like is forever. It's our digital tattoo." @AnneDGallaher #SMatWork

@SusanatJPL: Stay focused on your company's business case for social media to see results. @witf CEO Kathleen Pavelko #smatwork

@HowellMarketing: I say this to teens! @WhereandWhenPA:"Never say what you wouldn't want printed in the morning paper." #smatwork

Joining the panel:

Kathleen Pavelko, President, WITF

Richard E. Jordan, II, CEO, Smith Land Improvement Corporation

Dan Kerr, Director of Energy Services, McClure Company

Kim Phipps, PhD, President, Messiah College

They each shared how their company interacts with the community through the use of social media. 

We'll be updating this post throughout the day with our favorite tweets and quotes, and our photos of the event. Tweet us @susqphoto!

Opening remarks from Anne Deeter Gallaher of Deeter Gallaher Group and founder of Harrisburg Social Media Club.

First Keynote from Kristie Wells, president of Social Media Club.

 "Life it too short to work with a bunch of assholes" - via @kristiewells keynote

Google allows its employees to spend 20% of their work day committed to pursuing their own passions. (AMAZING!!) - via @jbairy (great takeaway from the keynote!)

A recent post on church pews caught our eye as we knew we had seen a similar style pew in our wedding travels. 

Blake writes:

Sandy is a member of Kreutz Creek Presbyterian Church in Hellam Township, which utilizes "bull-pen" pews for seating. If you're like me, you have no idea what that type of pew looks like, so let me try to explain. Close your eyes (after reading this of course), and picture a church filled with rows of pews. Now imagine them having wooden dividers in the center, similar to a partition separating side-by-side booths in a restaurant. This would be a vague description of what a bull-pen pew looks like, as shown in the example below:

Example of "bull-pen" pews, which are build with a divider in the center.
(Photo courtesy of MrHarman from Wikimedia Commons)
Name and location of church unknown

While we aren't historians, shooting a bunch of weddings a year we do get to see a lot of churches. :)

Though not located in York County, the Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lancaster features similarly styled pews. These particular bull-pens even have a locking door!

This church is the only that we've seen that has this style of pew and really made an impression on us at Chris and Lauren's wedding. Hope this helps in some way, Blake!

Can you spot the newcomer?

Liquid Hero's Christian Quinlivan

Custom tap handles designed by Salvaging Creativity

Liquid Hero's Josh Hoke and Matt DePrato

The turnout was crazy...both of the main bars were filled with folks wanting to try the new beers. Liquid Hero delivered 6 half barrels and hoped to sell out.

Customer sampling one of Liquid Hero's beers on tap, the Schweet Ale

From their site:

The park street pantry is a retail food store specializing in quality ingredients for cooking. Our goal is to provide the highest quality, best tasting ingredients to help make your food unforgettable.

We hope our love of cooking and our passion for unique and interesting foods will inspire you in your own culinary experiences.

They've got all this...

...and this, too...

...and BACON!

This place is seriously cool. Go check them out. 

Their hours are the same as Central Market, (Tuesday & Thursday, 9am-2pm, Saturday 8am-2pm) and they are located at 24 N. Beaver Street. 

http://www.parkstreetpantry.com/

http://www.facebook.com/parkstreetpantry

William Lenhart is York County born and raised but has returned from two years abroad to open The Pie Shop in downtown York.

Just a quick peek and you'll know that his sweet & savory pies are crafted by hand and with love. Have a short conversation with Will and you'll learn that he uses local fruits and vegetables in his pies. This is some seriously awesome looking food. Run, don't walk, to get a slice today.

It was a sad moment for a lot of us when we found out that Sharon Sauder & Sauder's Smokehouse had closed up shop in market. It was also weird when, just the next market day, a new pig was hanging over the shiny stand like a pirate flag taking over a ship.

Folks, from what we've seen, you've got nothing to worry about. Pulled Pork is their best seller so far but, to the owners of Kolt's Hawg House, the must-have menu item is the Cheesesteak Diablo. We tasted it. The homemade hot sauce is killer and the meat is perfectly cooked.

Their menu (full version available here) also features grilled chicken sandwiches and specialty burgers, including the awesomely-unholy sounding Peanut Butter Bacon Burger. Must. Try.

So, iloveyorkcity, let's welcome these two new vendors on this rather ugly rainy day. Show them how downtown York appreciates new business.

The festival runs from 10am-3pm on the 23rd. Vendors that promote green living will be set up doing all sorts of fun eco-friendly activites. There will also be some awesome live music on the sidewalk including Megan and the Wheelmen and Milk Cow and the Honeybee, two of our favorites.

For more info on the festival, visit: http://downtownyorkpa.com/go-green-in-the-city/ 

To get you geared up, here are the Top Ten Ways to Go Green in the City:

But with a crazy schedule, we just now got around to trying out the new restaurant that opened Monday: Flats Original Flatbread Cafe.

Tucked inside the Valencia (with an entrance on George St.), the café utilizes an old bar from the 20’s that had been closed off for years. After a quick remodel, Mike Haugh (owner of The Altland House) moved on with his plans for the café.

Their menu is a fresh selection of lunch favorites including the Asian Crunch Salad, Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Turkey Avocado Wrap, and Killer Beef Quesadilla. Their concept is simple: quick, inexpensive food made using fresh ingredients and placed on a housemade flatbread whenever possible (this serves as the base for their pizzas, wraps, and quesadillas).

We decided to try the Classic Cheese Pizza and the Italian Grinder. We find that the simple cheese pizza and the italian sub are the baseline at most area restaurants. If they make these simple things with care, most dishes that they serve will be good. After barely sitting down, our food was plated and ready. This food came out really quickly.

The pizza certainly isn't a traditional wood-fired Neopolitan pie (like this blog post) or a charred coal-oven pizza (like this blog post). It's also not at all like the "New York style" places found around Central PA (Lattuca's, Marcello's, Genova's, etc). Instead, the floury par-baked flatbread shares some characteristics of the Middle East's favorite pocket bread- the pita. The fact that each flatbread is precooked allows the skins to be sauced, topped, and quick baked in just 55 seconds. Like we said, fast. Enough of Philip’s geeky pizza talk? On to the grinder.

This is where our meal really shined. The sandwich was thrown in the oven for a few seconds- just enough to crisp up the ciabatta roll and melt the cheese. With a little balsamic magic sprinkled on top, it was heaven! Just the right combination of ingredients with a satisfying but not painful crunch in your mouth. Apparently it’s already a popular menu item for them and we see why!

We didn’t delve into their wide drink selection (including local Troegs and Yeungling on tap) but figured we could save that for our next trip.

We predict that Flats will fill up quite nicely over lunchtime, especially as it gets warmer and guests can utilize their outdoor seating. It's great to see a restaurant family with over 50 years of York County history opening up a daily lunch spot in downtown York. 

Flats Original Flatbread Cafe
142 North George St. (Valencia Ballroom)
York, PA 17401
717-843-FLATS
www.eatatflats.com
Open Monday - Friday 11:00am – 7:00pm